To select or to wait? Response to the commentaries

ABSTRACT

In [Nozari, N., & Hepner, C. R. (2018). To select or to wait? The importance of criterion setting in debates of competitive lexical selection. Cognitive Neuropsychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/02643294.2018.1476335], we proposed a theoretical framework for reconciling two seemingly irreconcilable theories of lexical selection: competitive vs. non-competitive selection. The key point in this framework is the division of language production into two separate—albeit interacting—systems: a decision-making framework and a multi-layered system which maps meaning to sound. Technically, this can be accomplished by superimposing a signal detection model onto the distributions of conflict derived from the core dynamics of mapping semantic features to lexical representations. Based on this framework, we argued that a flexible selection criterion could accommodate patterns predicted by both competitive and non-competitive models of lexical selection. Five excellent commentaries posed various questions regarding the necessity, applicability, and scope of the proposed framework. This paper addresses those questions.

KEYWORDS:

• Lexical selection
• competition
• signal detection theory
• criterion setting
• word production

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Rasha Abdel Rahman, Evangelia Balatsou, Albert Costa, Alissa Melinger, Brad Mahon, Eduardo Navarrete, and Gary Oppenheim for their thoughtful commentaries. We would also like to thank John Wixted for his insightful comments about the application of SDT to word production.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Nazbanou Nozari http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2215-8533

Christopher R. Hepner http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8999-1231

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by a Science of Learning grant from Johns Hopkins University to N.N., and in part by the Therapeutic Cognitive Neuroscience Fund endowed to the Cognitive Neurology division of the Neurology Department at Johns Hopkins University.